NEW YORK (CNNfn) - In what was its first heavy fall so far this year, Wall Street suffered broad-based losses Tuesday as a sweeping rally among Internet and technology stocks met its profit-taking end, and investors showed concern about the economic troubles of Brazil.
The Dow Jones industrial average plunged 145.21 points, or 1.51 percent, to 9,474.68. On the New York Stock Exchange, declines led advances 2,178 to 881 as 796 million shares changed hands.
The Nasdaq Composite, taking by far the worst hit, tumbled 63.84, or 2.68 percent, to 2,320.75. The S&P 500 index dropped 24.37, or 1.93 percent, to 1,239.51.
Much of Wall Street's woes stemmed from troubles in Brazil, a key U.S. trade partner. The Brazilian stock market, the Bovespa, plunged again Tuesday amid continuing worries about the moratorium on debt payments imposed by the country's third-largest province, Minas Gerais.
A bout of profit taking among Internet and high-technology stocks also dragged the market lower. The selling was broad-based, with financial, oil and transportation stocks suffering heavy losses.
But Chris Grisanti, director of research at Spears, Benzak, Salomon & Farrell, said he viewed the market's retreat as "orderly profit taking" and predicted a resumption of the upward trend before too long. (174K WAV) or (174K AIFF)
The bond market rallied, helped by an overnight recovery in the dollar against the Japanese yen, as well as malaise in stocks. The benchmark 30-year Treasury bond climbed 1-15/16 points in price, driving the yield down to 5.21 percent.
After days of heavy declines, the dollar surged against the yen following talk of market intervention by the Bank of Japan. The move would be the first time the Japanese central bank has bought dollars for yen since August 1995. The dollar fell against the euro.
Taking a break
In the stock market, the Internet rally finally broke down, with many hot Web issues losing ground.
Among the day's newsmakers, shares of Web portal Yahoo! (YHOO) lost 12-1/2 to 402 after climbing nearly 21 percent Monday, as investors geared up for the company's latest earnings report, released minutes after the closing bell.
Yahoo! earned 21 cents a share on a pro-forma diluted basis in the fourth quarter, more than four times the 5 cents a share it earned a year earlier and well above Wall Street's expectations for 16 cents a share.
The company also announced a 2-for-1 stock split and named Tim Koogle chairman and Jeff Mallett president. Koogle is currently Yahoo!'s president and chief executive and Mallett is the company's chief operating officer.
Elsewhere among Internet issues, Amazon.com (AMZN) retreated 21-1/4 to 163-3/8, Lycos (LCOS) dropped 26-1/2, or more than 20 percent, to 104-1/2 and RealNetworks (RNWK) shed 5-1/16 to 56-11/16.
But e*Trade (EGRP) gained 12-7/16, or more than 14 percent, to 100-15/16. The online brokerage said it is part of a plan to establish a full service Internet investment bank.
Another premier technology company that was to report results after the bell, semiconductor leader Intel (INTC) saw its stock lose 4-3/16 to 135-9/16 in regular trading.
The world's largest computer chip maker reported fourth-quarter profit of $1.19 a share shortly after the market closed, compared with 98 cents a share a year earlier and beating Wall Street forecasts for $1.07 a share.
Intel also warned that first-quarter revenue would fall below the fourth-quarter's record $7.6 billion, and profit margins in the first three months of 1999 would be slightly below the 58 percent of the fourth-quarter. The company named "seasonal factors" as the main reason for its negative forecast.
Intel's stock rallied to 139 in after-hours trading.
Other technology blue chips also retreated, with Dow member IBM (IBM) closing 4-3/16 lower at 185-1/16, Microsoft (MSFT) losing 5-5/16 to 142-3/16 and Dell Computer (DELL) shedding 1-9/16 to 80-7/16. Cisco Systems (CSCO) lost 6-9/16 to 6-9/16.
Helping mitigate the Dow industrials' losses somewhat, shares of Disney (DIS) surged 2-3/4 to 38 on the back of positive comments by executives of the company's ABC television network. Several brokerages, including Salomon Smith Barney and Goldman Sachs, upgraded the stock. Separately, Disney launched its "GO Network" Internet portal together with Infoseek (SEEK).
Eastman Kodak (EK) was another Dow gainer, advancing 4-3/8 to 79-5/8 after the Wall Street Journal said the company's U.S. market share for 35-millimeter film increased 5.1 percentage points to 70.3 percent in December.
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-- by staff writer Malina Poshtova Zang
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